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explore everywhere

Sometimes I go places, this is where you can read about my adventures. Road trips, cemeteries, abandoned places – they’re all here.

Pemaquid Point

by Kaylah Stroup August 24, 2016

The whole reason Jeff and I took the roadtrip to Maine was because a friend asked him to shoot their wedding. We had been talking about going up to Maine for a while but this was exactly the push we needed to finally get on the road. Saturday while he was busy doing wedding stuff I had the day to myself. Our hotel was in Waterville, about an hour and a half from the coast but I figured if I was already *this* close to the ocean there was no way I could not spend the day there.

I spent a great deal of time before the trip researching tide pools. My one and only experience with them on the west coast last summer left me anxious for more. I found a blog based around tide pool exploration in Maine and they listed one of their favorite spots as Pemaquid Point. So, when Jeff left the hotel to go shoot the bride getting ready I set off toward the ocean.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I arrived around an hour and a half before low tide, and basically had the place to myself. The weather was cool, and damp, a huge relief from the summer heat in Ohio. I wandered around the water by myself for a while until a stranger called out “Finding anything good?” “Nope! I’m not having any luck. This is only my second time at a tide pool.” I responded. He walked over and pointed out a few things including a cute little crab that I didn’t even end up photographing.

Despite the fact I found no other live creatures, it was still absolutely worth the drive from the hotel. I ooo-ed and ahhhh-ed at plant life, and exercised all my self control to not bring home every single shell and claw I found.

The ocean is pure magic. Don’t get me wrong, I love Lake Erie but the ocean is just...wow. Until we meet again, Pemaquid Point!
xoxo

Acadia National Park

by Kaylah Stroup August 22, 2016

After Old Bennington Cemetery Jeff and I continued on our route to Maine. The second big stop of the trip was going to be Acadia National Park. While researching I had read a post somewhere written by a park ranger that if you only had one day in the park you should do Park Loop Road so that was our plan. We have a pretty bad habit of not giving ourselves enough time in National Parks and this time was no exception. But hey, visiting for only a few hours is better than never visiting at all, right?

One half of the loop is one way traffic and the other half is two way. We ended up taking the two way traffic route, getting to the bottom, and realizing that the one way traffic half of the loop was in the opposite direction of what we were heading. We were already tired from being in the car all day, not to mention the fact that traffic was pretty bad on the way into the park. No phone service coupled with poor signage meant it took a very long time for us to find our way back into the loop at the top. I wasn’t even sure if we’d end up trying to do it again just because we had wasted so much time. Eventually we made it in, the correct way, and the beautiful scenery was so worth it.

Our first stop in the park was Thunder Hole, a natural inlet where waves crash in with a thunderous boom. We didn’t actually get to see Thunder Hole because holy tourist city!! but the surrounding area was everything I dreamed Arcadia would be. It was beautiful! Just like the Grand Canyon*, I was kind of surprised how you were just allowed to go wherever you wanted. Some parks are so strict, do not leave the path, but following the lead of just about everyone around us we climbed around on the rocks for a while.

After finally making our way around the loop successfully we kiiiind of got trapped inside and made a second full loop. D’oh! Jeff was beyond tired, and we were both ready to just check into our hotel (an hour and a half away!) and sleep but what are ya gonna do?

On our accidental second trip around we stopped at Sand Beach which was just stupid beautiful. I was squatting down to get some shots of the waves when one completely soaked by butt. The water was pretty cold but I couldn’t resist getting the rest of myself wet. The waves were crashing in so I stood in water, about knee deep, and let them hit me. It was perfect. I could have done it hours.

Acadia National Park, passport stamp, np passport

So, Acadia NP could probably label their routes better. I’m sure we’re not the first people to make that mistake, but Park Loop Road is a great way to experience the park when you’re short on time.
xoxo

*Obviously this is a lot less risky than climbing around at the Grand Canyon but I’m pretty sure it’d still be super easy to get hurt here climbing around.

Old Bennington Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup August 18, 2016

Old First Church Cemetery , Old First Congregational Church Cemetery, Vermont

Jeff and I just got back from a “mini” road trip. I’m putting mini in quotes there because since I found out we’d be doing this trip I always just kind of thought it would be a quick get away buuut I think it’s safe to say we killed this trip! Nine states, and just over two thousand miles. For now I think the easiest way to blog about it will be to go in chronological order…

Thursday night after Jeff got off work, we loaded up the car and headed toward my parents house. I thought the plan was to spend the night there and leave early in the morning but Jeff had misunderstood and thought I wanted to leave right after dropping Klaus off. Aaaand that was totally cool by me (because that is exactly what I actually wanted! I just thought a little bit of sleep before a twelve hour drive would be the responsible thing to do.) So we drove through the night, took turns sleeping, and made pretty great time.

Although it was slightly out of the way, Jeff really wanted to take a detour into Vermont. No real destination in mind, just wanted to cross it off his list as it was one of the only states on the east side of the US he hadn’t been to yet. We choose a town at random, Bennington.

I was rambling about how cute Vermont was when to my left I spotted one of the most beautiful houses I had ever seen. Seeee?! It was massive, decrepit, and honestly just looked like the perfect haunted house. We HAD to stop and get photos. While I was busy taking shots with each of my three cameras (one digital, two instant film. I’m a v. serious tourist, okay?) Jeff thought it would be a good idea to check and see if there were any geocaches nearby. Perfectly enough, there was! “Say Hi to Robert Frost” is the name of the cache and it was located in the cemetery right down the street. That’s how we randomly ended up in the cemetery Robert Frost was buried in!

Old Bennington Cemetery, Vermont, Bennington

Honestly, Robert Frost isn’t very exciting to me. I’ve just never been interested in poetry, it’s nothing against him. I’m always happy to check out the grave of someone famous though, no matter who they are. Also, any excuse to stop into a cemetery is fine by me. …Well, it turns out that Old Bennington Cemetery is packed full of history and the most beautiful headstones. I was only inside the gates for a matter of minutes before declaring it a favorite!

Do you remember last month when I blogged about Workman Cemetery and was all excited about that one headstone with a creepy face on it? Yeah, this cemetery was literally packed full of them! I have SO many photos of them. It’s just crazy how much detail and work was put into these. They put modern headstones to shame.

Pretty awesome first official stop of the trip, right!? Old Bennington Cemetery is absolutely gorgeous, and totally worth a detour. I have never seen old headstones in such amazing shape. This place is an absolute treasure!
xoxo

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on the cutting room floor – road trip edition!

by Kaylah Stroup August 16, 2016

A sort of different version of my regular on the cutting room floor series today. Jeff and I just got back from a road trip late last night. While I still haven’t even begun to go through all my photos there were a few I knew that didn’t fit into any of the posts I’d end up writing about the trip. I naively thought that we’d get home earlier yesterday and that I wouldn’t be exhausted today so I didn’t queue anything else but sharing some photos from the trip seems like a solid plan, right? Right!

Old friends of Jeff who now live in Maine asked him to shoot their wedding which he gladly accepted because it was a perfect excuse for us to take a trip. So last Thursday night after Jeff got off work, we dropped Klaus off at my parents house and hit the road. In four days we covered just over two thousand miles, and nine states! I fell stupid in love with New England (and all their amazing, old cemeteries.) I have SO many photos to sort through and tons and tons of things I can’t wait to talk about with y’all.

You guys, JUMANJI!

Quick highlights;
▴ THE OCEAN. Duh.
▴ Stumbling upon old cemeteries.
▴ Surprising Kristina in Boston. Seriously, the look on her face was worth the mile walk in the heat!
▴ DONUTS MADE FROM POTATOES. Literally the best donuts of my life. If you go near Portland, Maine you have to visit The Holy Donut. A friend recommended them, told us there would be a line, and that we should just get a dozen. Jeff and I both agreed there was no way we’d be able to eat a dozen of them because they were just donuts, right? NO. We could have killed a dozen of them, no sweat. All donuts are not created equal.
▴ Visiting NYC for the very first time + being able to see the Statue of Liberty from our hotel room.
▴ Finally visiting a beach that’s been on my list for a very long time.
▴ Exploring my second abandoned hospital!

…And
probably a million other things I can’t think of right now. Jeff and I
have this rapid fire way of traveling. We like to hit lots of spots in
short periods of time. It’s funny because we end up doing so many
amazing things that for a brief moment you can forget the
amazing thing you just did. It’s fun, and a little stressful but totally suits us.

Well, I’m off to start catching up on everything including pet snuggles because my three babies sure missed me! I’ll share more about our trip oh so soon.
xoxo

chasing waterfalls in Ohio

by Kaylah Stroup August 10, 2016

Toward the beginning of summer Jeff and I made a little goal to visit as many waterfalls in Ohio as possible. We’re two people who are easily defeated by the heat. It’s super easy for me to feel anxious about wasting a beautiful day just because I don’t have a solid plan. This waterfall goal turned out to be exactly what we needed!

“Let’s go find a waterfall!” became the go-to when we didn’t know what to do on the weekends. It was a reason to get out of bed early, and an excuse to get some exercise. Most parks usually had geocaches so that was an awesome bonus. Lets not forget the post-falls donuts and coffee either! Seriously, I’m going to be sad when we’ve hit them all. It’s been a blast!

We’ve crossed ten waterfalls off our list so far, which I think is a pretty darn impressive number. The majority of others left in Ohio are a bit more of a drive so they’ll have to be planned a little better. Everything we have seen could probably be revisited after a large rain though. It’s been a very dry summer here which obviously means all the falls are looking a little weaker than normal. Most were still definitely worth the trip but I don’t think there is anyone who wouldn’t prefer a roaring waterfall as opposed to one just trickling.

Honey Run Falls

Hayden Falls

Ohio Waterfall, CVNP, national park, waterfall

Brandywine Falls

East Falls of the Black River

so far this summer we’ve visited – Indian Run Falls, Paine Falls, Great Falls of Tinkers Creek.
Honey Run Falls, Hayden Falls, Brandywine Falls, East and West Falls of the Black River, and Big and Little Lyon Falls.

most impressive – West Falls of the Black River. Oddly enough, not pictured in this post. Half of the falls were shaded and the other half in bright sun at the time we visited. I took a crappy photo just to have but the lighting was all wrong. It was easily my favorite we visited though. It’s a beautiful hike to get to it and even after a very dry summer it was still pretty impressive. I’m very much looking forward to going back!

least impressive – Little Lyon Falls… well, Big Lyon too! Also not pictured in this post. Okay, so perhaps the lack of rain attributed to this, as well as the heat of the day but daaang, that was a long hot hike just to see water drip over the edge. It didn’t help that Jeff wasn’t feeling very well, due to aforementioned heat, so when we finally got there I couldn’t help but let out a defeated whimper of a laugh. Maybe visiting after a huuuuge rain would be best for these two? I don’t know. All I know is I’m in no rush to go back.

I’m still struggling to love summer. I think I’d like it at least a little bit more if I had air conditioning. It’s just hard to enjoy anything when you’re sweating for no reason, ya know? Visiting waterfalls definitely made summer a million times more tolerable to me though. I can’t wait to hunt down a few more.
xoxo

Workman Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup July 25, 2016

Last weekend Jeff and I took a little trip to visit a waterfall that was around two hours away. The drive was fairly uneventful. Ohio is a wonderful state, there’s lots to see here but there is no denying that sometimes the drive from one area to the next is boooring. At least for someone who grew up on this side of the US.* Rolling fields surrounded us, and apart from gorgeous old farmhouses every so often there wasn’t much to look at. Shortly before the waterfall we passed a beautiful cemetery. I spotted a few old stones from the road but didn’t think too much of it.

After having so much fun hiking around the waterfall, we weren’t quite ready for our little adventure to be over yet. Jeff asked if there was anything else I wanted to do while we were out and I suggested swinging by the cemetery we had seen earlier. I figured there would at least be a geocache there (there totally is!) and that maybe, just maybe, I could snag a few photos.

I hopped out of the car, examined my surroundings, and apologized to Jeff. “I’m going to be a while. I just need to shoot this, and this, and this! Oh and that!” The cemetery was a lot older than what it appeared to be from the road. While it was no Mount Moriah, it was even slightly overgrown in spots. I was in love!

We wandered around the cemetery for a while, going our separate ways then joining up again to excitedly point out interesting headstone to each other. This beautiful, old cemetery seemed so randomly placed. Surrounded by fields, it was like none I had ever visited before. I did a little research when I got home but could find no extra information or anything out of the ordinary on this place. (I was hoping for ghost stories, obviously!)

There were a lot of instances in this cemetery where I was super excited about this or that but I think that finding the face above took the cake. Jeff and I were admiring two large headstones, both doing the mean lean. They were meticulously carved with beautiful detail but I didn’t even notice the face until Jeff pointed it out. While it’s no skull and cross bones (number one on my to find wishlist!) it’s incredibly awesome!

Every time I think to myself that I’ve already visited all the interesting cemeteries in my surrounding area I’m proven wrong.
xoxo

*Last year when we visited Phoenix the guy at the rental car place asked where we were from and upon hearing Ohio exclaimed how green and beautiful it was here. He was amazed by all the trees! We, on the other hand, were completely enthralled with Phoenix and it’s desert landscape!

Lagoon Deer Park

by Kaylah Stroup June 21, 2016

Last week I took my annual trip to Lagoon Deer Park. It’s a deer petting zoo located in Sandusky, OH – and if you’ve never been to one please make it a priority! The set up is basically one massive pen that you’re allowed to walk in. Along the edges of that pen are a bunch of other pens with deer, llamas, goats, emu, etc. In the large part that you walk in there are usually twenty to thirty deer, maybe even more, that are free to roam. They’ll approach you, and you can feed them peanuts. It is magical. You feel like Snow White, just absolutely surrounded by deer who are so very interested in what you have for them! One of my favorite parts of this park is that it’s almost always empty. There has never been more than one other group of people there at the same time is me. Since 2013, I’ve been visiting this place and it’s still not losing it’s appeal… I mean, how could it?!

I normally head out in there in the fall but this year I wanted to visit a little bit earlier in the season in hopes of seeing some babies. As I walked around I was joined by a man who worked there. He gave me some grass to feed whatever animal wanted it (no one wanted it except a donkey who bit my finger!) and walked around with me for a bit pointing out different highlights. Normally I enjoy just being alone with my thoughts, and of course the deer here but it was like getting my own personal tour which was rad. He directed my attention to two barely one day old fawns that had been born the previous night. In the rocks they were easily looked over since with their spots they basically blended in. If you aren’t looking for them, you aren’t going to see them. I was disappointed they were in the cage where I couldn’t get close but excited to just be able to see them. I watched for a while as one little guy stood and took a few shaky steps and eventually laid back down. Those loooong legs are just too cute.

As as I walked out of the pen and back into the building to leave a man who works there, who I’ve seen every year, started up a conversation. “You’re back! Did you see the newborns?” I responded that I had been shown the ones in the back pen and that they were soooo cute. He said “Yeah, and the one right out there?” Whaaat? We walked back outside together and he pointed out a tiny fawn that I had apparently looked right over. I bolted over to it’s side and took a handful of photos that I’m just smitten with.

The babies were very very cute, obviously, but the little guy on the right hand side of the photo below was my absolute favorite of the day. He was apparently born last fall…and I think he might be one of the silliest looking little critters I have ever seen. I like that he’s really furry. He didn’t look like any of the other deer there. He had these scrawny little legs with knobby knees and oversized feet. I was reminded of Dr. Seuss. Don’t you just want to eat him up!?

Lagoon Deer Park, Ohio, Sandusky, Petting Zoo

The photo below was originally hanging out in the middle of this post but it definitely seemed a little out of place but I couldn’t not share it…because emu are terrifying. I guess I’ve never really paid all that much attention to them but I stood there and stared at these beasts for so long just trying to take them all in. They’re like dinosaurs but they also look like handpuppets? I don’t know! Definitely one of those animals that you’re like of like “how is it real? kinda of seems made up…” Giraffes also fall into that category.

As always, if you live ANYWHERE near Sandusky, Ohio – you have to visit Lagoon Deer Park.
xoxo

Orange Hogsback Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup June 16, 2016

Summer is supposed to be the most fun time of the year but it’s almost always the busiest which kind of makes it not so fun. Finding time to hang out with everyone lately has been hard. I’ve been that friend that is like “we HAVE to do something. I don’t care what it is, just something! It’s imperative!” So last week along with getting ice cream twice (seriously, my favorite way to meet up with friends) we did some long overdue geocaching.

We had plans to head to a cute little town not too far away that has a waterfall, hoping there would be lots of caches there but on the way I was browsing the app and found a cache in a cemetery. Geocaches in cemeteries combine two of my favorite things – cemeteries + finding treasure so I suggested we stop in and look for it.

The cache turned out to be a quick fairly easy find but the cemetery itself was a real treat. Nestled in the woods, you’d never know it was there if you weren’t out looking for it. We actually drove right by it and had to turn around. Orange Hogsback Cemetery has a total of sixty two permanent residents. The oldest we found dated back to 1813. That’s ninety nine years before the Titanic sunk!!!*

While someone else signed the log for everyone, I darted around taking photos. I had no intention of taking any photos when we got there, let alone enough for a post but it was such a wonderful location. Not to mention, it was a beautiful evening- not too hot, not too cool. I feel like the photos captured that. Clovers always feel like summer to me. The grass just looks so soft I want to crawl into the photos with a blanket and a book and spend all day relaxing.

If you haven’t tried out geocaching yet, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s such a fun hobby and a most excellent way to discover hidden gems. If I had never started I wouldn’t have found my new favorite beach or this wonderful cemetery! Plus it’s an awesome excuse to get your friends together.
xoxo

*When I was in grade school I was really into learning about the Titanic. While I was a hair too young to watch the movie without my mom covering my eyes when it came out, I still pored over every book I could find on that big boat. I don’t really remember much of what I learned about it but the year it sunk is still clearly ingrained in my head so it’s often how I compare history dates.